3 basics of facebook analytics

You've got a few months' worth of Facebook activity under your belt. Now's the time to dig into the data and see what's working.

inc.com http://www.inc.com/janine-popick/3-basics-of-facebook-analytics.html?cid=em01016week46

3 Basics of Facebook Analytics

You've got a few months' worth of Facebook activity under your belt Now's the time to dig into the data and see what's working

Courtesy InsideFacebook

You've spent a significant amount of time setting up your business's

Facebook presence and are feeling pretty good about it You're finding

content to share on a regular basis, and steadily growing your "like"

base beyond just friends and family

But this isn't the time to start slacking off In fact, it's now when you're

gaining some momentum that you need to take your Facebook

efforts to the next level

Now that you've got a few months' worth of activity, you should begin

to look at what kind of content is resonating with your audience and what's not, so you can

become more targeted and efficient with your efforts This knowledge also is important if you're thinking about doing some paid Facebook advertising

1 Analyze Your Content

If you don't already know, Facebook Insights is the platform's free built-in analytics package, and it's available to Facebook page administrators Facebook Insights will be your new best friend Facebook Insights collects a lot of data about your page, from visits and reach to engagement

and demographics You can see how each individual piece of content is connecting with your audience You can get a snapshot view of how many people have seen each of your posts

("Reach"), clicked on it ("Engaged Users"), commented or liked or shared ("Talking About This"), and a whole lot more You can also see how well certain types of content photos, videos, links, questions, etc. perform compared to each other

So, for example, if you find that a photo of your

pup at company headquarters resulted in a

spike in engagement, you might want to start

having Fido make more regular appearances If

you tend to get more engagement on

Saturdays and Sundays, save your best content

for the weekend See what happens with your

analytics

2 Analyze Your Audience

Who are your "likers"? Are they in their 20s, or 50s? How many "liked" you by clicking on your

page's "like" button, and how many by clicking on an external plugin?

Facebook Insights can tell

you all this, too These stats

can help you deliver even

more targeted content and

grow your community If

your audience skews

younger, for example, it

might be okay to sprinkle

some "LOLs" once in awhile in your posts If a lot of them "like" you through an external social plugin, think about where these plugins are (maybe your blog or website?) and consider making the buttons more prominent

3 Give Facebook Advertising a Try

Once you've familiarized yourself with Facebook Insights, you

might want to test a small advertising campaign to get more

exposure There are different advertising options, including ads

and sponsored stories that run on the right-hand side (and are

most effective to get new fans), and promoted posts (which

gets your post in front of more people who already "like" your

page) Learn more about Facebook advertising here

The great thing about advertising on Facebook (besides the fact

that it's really easy) is that you can target your ad to a specific

audience based on location, gender, age and/or interests And,

you can start with a small/limited campaign and, based on how

well it's performing, adjust your budget or stop advertising

altogether anytime

We have a saying here at my online marketing company, VerticalResponse, that I think applies to most companies: "Always be testing." This should be the case for your Facebook strategy, too And Facebook Insights is an amazing tool to help you test, track and refine your efforts

Have you used Facebook Insights to track your page's performance? What metrics/numbers are the most helpful?

Did you enjoy this post? If so, sign up for the free VR Buzz weekly newsletter and check out

the VerticalResponse Marketing Blog

Janine Popick is the CEO and founder of VerticalResponse, a leading provider of

self-service email and event marketing, online surveys, social media, and direct mail solutions

The company was ranked No 2,802 on the 2012 Inc 5000 @janinepopick